International studio (27.1905/1906(1906))

The Dromenagh Estate

In his figure subjects the chief interest is centred
in the colouring, in which he excelled. The
gorgeous jewel-like qualities suggest his Southern
blood, for Diaz came of Spanish parents. Many
of these subject-pictures, though sometimes weak
in drawing, have decorative qualities of a high
Order.
Though his work lacks the deep poetic sentiment
of Corot and the Stern dignity of Rousseau,
Daubigny was. in his day, the most populär artist
of the group, perhaps because his pictures usually
possess a charm which attracts and an obvious
beauty which is easily understood. But if he did
not attain to the level of the two masters just
mentioned, his work shows many qualities which
stamp him as a great painter, and his influence on
present-day landscape art is unmistakable.
The Staats Forbes collection includes several
examples of Daubigny’s work, The Banks of the
Oise being the most important. The subject is
one which he never tired of painting, and many of
his finest works were inspired by the picturesque
river. This picture, full of calm repose, is skil-
fully composed, and reveals much delicate feeling
and harmony of colour. Equally characteristic of
this most populär phase of Daubigny’s art is the
Ducks in Water.
Jules Dupre was the business man of the
revolutionary movement of 1830, being untiring in
his efforts to secure purchasers for the pictures of
the other members of the group. He endeavoured
to paint Nature in her wild and tempestuous moods.
In the Moonlight landscape in the collection the
majestic solemnity of the night is well expressed.
Evening and Cattle and Pool are also good land-
scapes, but the artist is not well represented in his
seapieces, a branch of painting he followed in his
later years.
The cattle pictures of Constant Troyon are so
well known and so deservedly populär that it is
sometimes forgotten that, great as he was in these
works, he also ranks very high as a painter of
landscape. Indeed, this fact is impressed upon us
in most of his cattle pieces, in which the animals
always belong to their environments. His
Landscape with Cattle in the collection is an
excellent example of this, the beautiful autumnal
tints being in complete harmony with the herd
of cows. Morning Diversion—Pond with Ducks,
is a landscape of good quality, and reveals the
artist’s fine feeling for colour. The large canvas,
Flock of Sheep Crossing the Downs, had a remarkable
attraction for the late G. F. Watts, who considered
it the finest work by Troyon he had ever seen.

Though Charles Jacque’s pictures never show
the masterly handling of Troyon, he possessed
considerable skill in painting animals, especially
sheep, and in some of his works, such as Shepherd
and Sheep, Evening, he exhibits true poetic feeling.
With his death in 1894 there passed away the
last of this famous group of artists. But if the men
who made the great Romantic Movement of 1830
are dead, their works remain to us as a witness
of an earnest endeavour to realise the poetry of
Nature, an endeavour which was upheld amid the
storm and stress of controversy, and finally brought
to a most successful issue.
The great painters of Barbizon were never better
appreciated than they are at the present day, both
in their own country and abroad. In this respect
the news that it is proposed to perpetuate their
memory by the erection in the Champs Elysees
of an imposing monument will give general satis-
faction. The scheme has received the approval of
the Fine Art Department, and the state, the city,
and the general public will contribute towards the
fund. E. G. H.
ON THE DROMENAGH
ESTATE AT IVER HEATH.
BY C. R. ASHBEE.
The customary methods for the development
of an estate that is passing from the agricultural
to the building condition are well enough known


FIG. I.—PLAN OF A GARDEN C. R. ASHBEE,
ON THE DROMENAGH ESTATE ARCHITECT

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